Jaguar Land Rover to build an engine plant in Changsu, China

Jaguar Land Rover is finishing up plans to build an engine site just next to its new vehicle facility in Changshu, China. The carmaker will start vehicle output at site with joint venture partner Chery Automobile at the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015, according to Ian Harnett, JLR's purchasing director.

He said that they already have set an opening for the engine factory, which would build JLR’s new range of Ingenium four-cylinder engines. He noted to Automotive News Europe that they will not develop another engine range.

While JLR has not disclosed which models will be produced in China, its president in the country, Bob Grace, has remarked at the Beijing auto show that the vehicle will be an SUV from the Land Rover.

Bernstein analyst Max Warburton wrote in a report focusing on the financial future of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands that the carmaker is eyeing to sell 150,000 vehicles in China annually by 2015.

JLR said it delivered 425,006 Jaguars and Land Rovers and Jaguars globally in 2013, but did not disclose the numbers from China. Warburton wrote that China likely accounts for over half of JLR’s profit, primarily from sales of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport.

JLR is set to open a new engine near Wolverhampton, central England, next year. The new Jaguar XE sedan will be the first model to be fitted with the new gasoline and diesel engines produced at the UK site. AS of now, JLR powers its models with from Ford Motor Co.

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